Educating Parents on SBG

So last night we had an open forum with the parents to educate them on SBG and how we are implementing it at our school.

The parents had many concerns and they were very verbal about them.  Some were concerned with giving kids a 1, 2, 3, or 4 as a grade instead of a number between 0 and 100, which that practice has now been stopped.  Others were extremely upset that their student who up until this year has been making straight A's would be required to go above and beyond to push their grade from a 90 to a 100.  But the biggest push of some of the parents and students was over the concern that it will impact their GPA and class rank.

The problem here in Texas and in our district is that students aren't simply given an A, B, C, etc for a grading period or for a semester grade.  Instead they are given a numeric grade and in our district that number grade is what is used to calculate their GPA as well as their class rank.  And of course in Texas we have the Top 10% rule where the students in the Top 10% of their graduating class are automatically given acceptance to any public university.  I really want to sit down with some of these parents and students and show them how the math doesn't come out to a large statistical difference.

They're so uninformed and we aren't even using TRUE SBG!  We've modified the idea of it to fit our crazy grading system here which keeps it from being the thing that the parents and students are so gung ho against.

UGH!!!!!

Sorry, I just had to vent....

Oh and about that tire

Turns out that there were 4 nails in it!!! Our school has an auto tech program and the kids repaired my tire today. Whew!

I'm driving on a doughnut and there's cat pee on my bed...

Well so far this semester has been interesting, to say the least. It's only been one week, no make that 4 days and it's been a roller coaster of emotions for everyone at the school.

I know that most of this is not school or classroom related but I figured out last night that if I don't get this down in writing somehow then I will probably forget the week and this has to be one of the toughest weeks I have ever had.

I'll start at the beginning.

We get back Monday for a teacher workday and our principal is talking us through the "let's get pumped up for the story and share some positive things" regular schpeal (I have no clue how to spell that). At the end of the meeting he tells us that he has a few last things to let us know. Our new librarian, a young-well my age young-enthusiastic and awesome person had her baby Christmas Day. The down side of this is that she found out that her melanoma had spread and she had four new growths.

Also, four of our better senior boys were in an accident New Year's Day trying to help out some girls who had run out of gas in downtown Austin. They had some gas to put in their car in an open container (I know, not the smartest thing). And then someone in the cab of the truck decided to light a cigarette (again, not the smartest thing). Turns out one of the boys in the accident that was severely burned is the older brother of one of my step team girls. Two of the boys were able to get out of the car with minimal injuries, the other two have burns on 40 - 60% of their body.

On top of the not so great news when I got back in town after being home with the family for break one of my cats decided to start peeing on my bed. I have no clue why but she has even done now once on me! The comforter and pillow top mattresses are now at the dry cleaners getting washed in hopes of getting the cat pee smell out of them.

Oh and then on Wednesday after staying much later than I anticipated and getting a lot of work done I walk out to my car and notice that my hubcap looks really close to the ground. As I get closer I realize that it looks like it is on the ground! Yep, tire totally flat! Thank goodness for Roadside Assistance!

So that's pretty much everything in a nut shell so far. I hope everyone else is having a better year so far!